What is Actuarial Services Insurance?
Actuarial services, a type of financial service, use quantitative modeling in their line of work. They study the economic aspect of risk. Actuarial experts determine the risk type and assess its immediacy and magnitude. Their end goal is to devise a plan that examines the effects of a threat and evaluates its financial impact. The formula is created by using mathematical and statistical models.
Actuarial services help insurers to price their products effectively. The more risk-sensitive a model is, the higher the price efficacy of its products. The higher its price efficacy, the more operationally accurate a product is.
The US Insurance Consulting and Actuarial Services market size in 2021 was $8.3 billion.
Business and Professional Risks
The effectiveness of actuarial models allows insurers to financially fortify their finances against their clients' risk exposures by charging correct premiums. Like any other business, it is challenging for insurance companies to maintain profitability if their products are not correctly priced.
Actuarial services compute the financial impacts of insurance companies' risks. An erroneous model is as much a risk for an insurance company as it is for the actuarial service provider. Insurance companies face the risk of inaccurate models that fail to capture the accuracy of premiums charged for insurance policies. Let's consider some of the threats actuarial services are exposed to:
- Erroneous actuarial models: These models result from flawed assumptions of loss or sensitivity in capturing an insurer's risks. Unsound models cause ineffective pricing of products, making it difficult for an actuarial service's client (an insurer) to operate profitably.
- Substandard quality of report: Failure to deliver precise qualitative analyses to the client.
- Alleged negligence: The actuarial data given to an insurer results in an operating loss.
- Property damage: Office and computer equipment damaged due to fire.
- Cyber threat: Phishing emails from cyber criminals can lead to wrongful access of information such as customers' and employees' passwords and credit or debit account information.
Recommended Policies
Effective insurance policies can protect actuarial services from the day-to-day threats of running their operations. They can consider the following insurance policies:
General Liability Insurance
This policy protects actuarial services from third-party claims. Bodily injury, property damage, and personal and advertising injury are the types of coverage included. Claims or lawsuits for economic loss, pain and suffering arising from the actuarial service's operations are covered. The general liability insurance company provides legal defense and pays for covered claims.
- Bodily injury: A power outage in the office causes a client to trip and fall. The general liability policy will respond to the claim by the injured party.
- Property damage: Coffee spilled on a client's new laptop while in the office - general liability insurance will pay the client's property damage claim.
- Advertising injury: Harm caused to a third party from libel, slander, or advertising committed by the insured.
Professional Liability or Error and Omissions Insurance
The Professional Liability or the E&O policy protects actuarial services against clients' allegations of negligence, mistakes, or omission in service provided. A client's claim about the deliverable received being flawed or misrepresented to a violation of principle. In each of these situations, the Error and Omissions insurance would respond with defense and payment for covered claims:
- Professional misrepresentation: Policy premiums based on actuarial's data resulted in inaccurate higher premiums, and the insurer lost many clients to competitors.
- A professional mistake: An insurer client realized record losses exceeding all loss forecasting data provided by the actuarial's model.
- A breach of contract: When the actuarial service has missed a deadline or has not delivered something as promised (late delivery or incomplete work delivered).
Workers’ Compensation Insurance
This policy protects employers from employee on-the-job injuries or work-related death of an employee. Depending on the situation, workers’ compensation insurance will pay employees' medical costs and a percentage of wages lost when unable to work.
- Neck injury due to computer usage at work: This common occupational hazard usually leads to excruciating neck pain, which may require further treatment, physiotherapy, and rest for a few weeks. The policy pays the statutory benefits to the employee for injury claims.
Commercial Auto Insurance
Commercial auto insurance is recommended to provide statutory auto coverage and more if an actuarial service owns a vehicle. Bodily injury and Property Damage Liability, Comprehensive and Collision on owned vehicles, Medical Payments, Personal Injury Protection/No-Fault, and Uninsured Motorist coverage are all available on a Business Auto Policy.
- At-fault-accident: This policy takes care of the legal liability for bodily injury and property damage caused by the actuarial company vehicle's at-fault driver.
- Damage to owned vehicles: Collision coverage pays for repair or replacement of the insured's vehicles less the deductible on the policy.
Cyber Insurance
Let's suppose an actuarial service company's clients' information gets breached due to a hack, a phishing email, or any other cyberattack like a virus or a malware attack. Under such circumstances, an actuarial service can expect a large claim or a lawsuit from a carrier that could quickly get prohibitively expensive. This policy would respond to the insurer's claim or suit if the data loss caused a financial loss.
- Lost data: An actuarial expert (employed by the actuarial service) may leave his computer on a crowded train. The laptop has clients' private information on its hard drive. Under such circumstances, a lawsuit filed by its clients may bankrupt the actuarial service. Cyber insurance addresses the suit.
Overall Insurance Costs
The cost of the right insurance policies to protect an actuarial service business is based on the business's revenue, payroll, location, number of locations, limits purchased, and claims history. These exposures determine the premium calculation for various insurance types. The types of policies needed based on the business's operations also contribute to the cost of the establishment's policies.
Conclusion
A robust set of insurance policies purchased by a business goes hand in hand with its loss control and risk management practices. While a company connects its human resources, operations, and business assets with its products and clients, a well-chosen set of insurance policies builds a security fence around the entire business establishment. Stakeholders thereby remain assured of business continuity, even amidst uncertainty.